


New Year's Minute

by killercatchy



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Meetings, M/M, Timestamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 15:48:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11786376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killercatchy/pseuds/killercatchy
Summary: Alternate universe where you have a timestamp of when you’ll meet your soulmate. The first minute of every year, you spend in your soulmates body.When Isak is invited to a new years party with the rest of the boys, he hesitates at first. With a timestamp like his, staying home is always the safer option.





	New Year's Minute

Isak is nervous. It's getting closer and closer to midnight. Last year, he’d spent a full minute by a lake he’d never been to before. Before you turn 17, staying out of social settings is best, so his soulmate had spent that same minute in Isak’s room, just like he had all years before it. 

Not knowing much about his soulmate bothered Isak. The last time he had come to within four walls was nearing five years back - since then his soulmate had chosen places without mirrors, clues or any other help. Isak had given up hope that he was ever going to know beforehand. 

All he knows now is the time they will meet. At midnight. He doesn’t know what year, but it will be on a night like this, where everybody else is just excited about seeing what has happened with their soulmate during the last year. Meanwhile all Isak can think about how he’ll spend his first minute with his soulmate just staring at himself before seeing the other boy.

At least he knows that much.

Jonas sits down next to Isak and starts talking about finding a quiet place he and Eva can spend that minute together, seeing them selves through the other’s eyes. Isak rolls his. He gets it, it’s very romantic and all. But concentrating on his words is so far from Isak’s capabilities. 

Midnight is five minutes away, and, hell, Isak is shitting himself. What if I wakes up in the forrest or something this time. Does his soulmate even live with his family anymore?

“You’re worried,” Jonas notes and slings his arm around Isak. They sit there for a little while, waiting for Eva to join them. As it turns out, the couch Isak has been sitting on is that quiet place they plan on spending their minute.

“I just want to see his face for once. I just want to know. You know, Sana knows. I want to know, too,” Isak says, sighing as he gets up. Eva comes over a few short seconds later and sits down with Jonas.

Every year Isak has been so careful to make sure his soulmate has woken up to a mirror and a little note. This year, it won’t be close to that at all. There will be people and alcohol. He decides to go sit down in the kitchen with some of the others that have yet to find their person.

So the last minute before midnight begins. Isak has poured himself a drink. He sits it down on the kitchen counter and leans there next to it, his back to the door. Madhi is there, too, smiling down at his timestamp, smoothing a thumb over it. His is blue, with a silver tint so it stands out against the skin of his wrist.

Isak sighs and touches his hip where the deep black timestamp wraps around his hipbone. 

Someone joins them just as the countdown begins next door. Madhi says something along the lines of 'good luck’ toward Isak. 

He hears the fridge open just as the countdown goes to seven.

A beer opens at three.

And at one, just as Isak turns around, almost forgetting the time - just like it seems this other person has, the beer can is sat down next to Isak’s drink. 

At zero, Isak closes his eyes.

 

* * *

 

 

When he opens them again, he is staring back at his own face. It’s full of wonder, the question he was about to ask, if he had had the time, is still there on the tip of his lips. The slightly longer limbs he is in now are heavier, a little more drunk, it seems. 

It takes both of them a little more than a beat to realize what is happening. Isak is really staring at himself. 

_Speak, speak, speak!_

“Who are you?” Isak asks in a foreign voice. The face in front of him - his own face, he has to almost remind himself - is slowly lighting up at the realization of what is happening. Like he planned it, that asshole. He doesn’t answer, so Isak tries again.

“You’ve hid from me for years now! Who are you?”

“Even.” It’s Isak’s voice speaking, finally. “My name’s Even.”

So now they know each other’s names, Isak assumes. He signed his notes the last few years. If Even had bothered to remember, considering how he had placed himself the last few years.

Before either of them get around to say another word, the minute is up. If it was overwhelming seeing his own face react to the situation before, actually seeing Even for the first time is so much more. The upturn of his nose, how his hair looks relaxed like Even runs his hands through it all day, the crinkle around his eyes, the slight buck of his teeth. His lips.

At the same time, Isak just wants to yell at him. Why not just make it easy? Why not let Isak know just something? He starts asking out loud, violence in his voice, just holding himself back from pushing Even, but the words get swallowed quickly when he starts getting overwhelmed with how Even is looking at him.

Even just steps back a little, going from all smiles to worry. He then takes a hold of Isak’s wrist, dragging him outside into the cold of the January night. 

When they’re there, outside of Eva’s house, under a streetlamp staring at each other, Even finally speaks up.

“I didn’t want to tell you, because I was scared someone would tell you things about me before I could.” It’s now Isak realizes who Even must be. Even from the neighboring school - the boy who made a name for himself doing great film edits and having terrible episodes, writing stuff publicly. There’s still anger there, from Isak. Anger for not having known when he put that trust into Even’s hands. Anger that needs to be talked about at another time. Even looks terrified, stuffing his hands in his pockets, making himself small. So Isak puts the anger on hold and just nods in answer to Even’s explanation. 

“It’s okay if you need some time to trust me,” Even says, staring at the ground between them, almost looking up at Isak, but then decides against it, or so it seems.

“I might,” Isak answers, “but right now I want to be happy. We can worry later. Let’s just be happy we’ve met each other for now?” He says the last thing as a question to get Even to look at him. It works, catches his attention, even.

They stand there, looking each other never again. Isak feels tired, suddenly, as the silence around them, the lightening of tension sinks in a little. His body relaxes.

“Want to smoke or something?” Even asks. His nerves are still sitting on the outside of his clothes it seems. 

They end up sitting down to talk things over. Isak still lets the anger sit back, but Even talks. They speak for an entire hour about hos scared Even had been to let Isak find him, after he first got his diagnosis. The choices he’d made after that had been to calm himself down, just so when he got to meet Isak, maybe they would be able to start at the basics. Even wanted to tell his own story, as it turned out. Just like he did with the film making.

Isak starts to understand better. They talk over how Even felt when he found out how close they were, how Isak had heard of Even before without knowing about their bond. They smoke half a joint between them. Even’s hands stop shaking from nerves, but shortly after the cold get to both of them. In the end, they have to go inside. 

“We could go somewhere? I live at this collective - maybe we could go there?” Isak asks just as they get through the door. Isak had always been told that meeting his soulmate would feel like meeting someone all over again, where things would just fall into place, like they’d known each other a whole lifetime before. It’s almost like that, only it feels like the wrong words might break the whole thing apart. This time, his words hit just right.

Even smiles in return to the question.

They get their jackets. They walk back. Isak takes Even’s hand outside his own front door. 

In the kitchen, they share small stories about how they’d imagined their first meeting. It turns out that Even had been looking forward to that first minute of staring at himself with Isak’s eyes almost as intensely as Isak had been dreading it. Even laughs for the first time since they’ve met. 

They share Isak’s bed later, when they decide to sleep around five in the morning, after speaking for hours. When they wake up, way into the afternoon next day, they share a close-mouthed kiss, giggling at bad breath and the chock of the night before.

The anger is creeping away, the more understanding Isak gains. The nerves are gone, too. Even is right there. His soulmate is right there. The world is out there, moving. Soon they’ll call their parents, tell their friends. They will have to move. But for now, they get to redo their their minute and really look at each other. It still feels new. That alone scares away Isak’s worries.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was written a little fast, but I just figured we needed more soulmate stuff. I didn't get this beta'ed or anything, so sorry for spelling/grammar mistakes. 
> 
> But thank you for reading, tho:)


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